When does a parked vehicle become ‘abandoned’?

We’ve all seen them: a car, boat or RV parked on the side of the road for extended periods of time. On Tuesday, we learned that before a vehicle can be marked for towing, a call needs to be made to report it. That’s because Bend police are not out looking for cars that have been parked long-term or abandoned.

Police Lt. Clint Burleigh said a call must first come in to the Deschutes County abandoned vehicle line 541-312-7972 at to report the vehicle. A volunteer (reserve) officer is then sent to the scene to tag it, but that’s not the only effort made before the vehicle is towed.

“We give warnings. We send letters. We tell them they need to move,” Burleigh said. “We’ll come back and check it. If it hasn’t moved, it’s about a 21- to 22-day process to where we will then get a hold of our contracted towing company, and they’ll come out and tow that car.”

As of Tuesday, Burleigh said the department has received 2,349 calls about vehicles this year, 657 have been tagged and 225 have been towed.

Once the call has been made for the vehicle to be removed, police call Consolidated Towing Co., which is required to take the vehicle to its lot within 24 hours. But before a worker hooks up the vehicle, they make one more effort to contact the registered owner.

If no contact can be made, the vehicle is towed to the yard. Then comes the process of taking pictures of the vehicle, apprizing, and documenting it Consolidated Towing also contact the state DMV and police to tell them where the vehicle is.

At that point, the lien certification process starts.

“That’s the formal notification for every interested party that it’s here, it’s accruing storage (fees) and that, if they don’t come and get it, then we’re going to have the legal right to dispose of it,” said Keith Anton, operations manager at Consolidated Towing. “Ninety-nine percent of the vehicles you’re going to see right here all end up going to the scrapyard.”

Anton said the company tows an average of 20 to 30 abandoned vehicles per month for Bend police and is on track to send nearly 300 vehicles to the scrapyard by the end of the year.

Cars, however, are not their biggest issue. Boats and RVs can be parked on a city street for no longer than 72 hours.

“The problem with these RVs is that no one will take them,” Anton said. “You can’t just take them to the wrecking yard. It’s got all the fiberglass. It’s not clean. You can’t take it to Schnitzer (for recycling). Schnitzer won’t take it.

“You can’t just take it directly to the landfill. It all has to be prepped. You’re dealing with biohazard issues. You’re dealing with just nasty, nasty things inside one of these RVs.”

Consolidated Towing currently has 11 RVs and two camping trailers in storage. They all came in this year, and another RVs on the way.

Anton said this is not just a local issue, and he would love it if everyone worked together to find a way to legally and safely dispose of the RVs.